The Hotel Van Zandt Austin, Texas
January 19, 2022
Ah Kimpton, you’ve become so corporate. Such a great hotel chain ground down by middle management cost cutting and the boredom of crank turning. Dang. We remember the old days, yes we do. They are never coming back.
Anyway, getting to Texas on United was not so bad even in double masks. The flight was very sparsely populated, though it is a longish one. Austin is a great city to visit. Or is it a town? Kind of hard to tell. Here’s the story of our brief stay at Hotel Van Zandt.
First of all, IHG has forgotten everything about what NPS likes. Just for the record, we like high floors, certain kinds of pillows, and rooms with no plastic showers. We have also become accustomed to welcome notes from the GM, delicious amenities, sparkling water, and sometimes even a craft cocktail greeting us in the room from a barkeep hired by Jacques. Not this time. Even though the Kimpton twitter dwarf (they used to be fairies, but corporations) was given the heads up, not one bit of prep was done. Kind of astonishing, really.
So NPS paid a pretty penny for an excellent king spa room with a view, and was given a plastic bottle of water at checkin by the Assistant Manager who had obviously not read our secret file in preparation for our arrival. Hell, there probably isn’t a secret file anymore.
Room 701 is a great room style category. But the floor? Not a high one. The amenities and water? Nope. And the “lake view” is mostly a dusty construction site surrounded by homeless encampments. Seriously. Every city we’ve visited lately has a massive housing problem. What is wrong with this country?
The bathroom was awesome. Great tub (which we used a bunch) and a nice glass shower.
The king size bed is surrounded by a bank of windows on two sides. The view will one day be better.
Given our late arrival sometime just after 8pm, we headed for a drink to Geraldine’s on the fourth floor. It was a Saturday night and the unmasked Texas crowd was dense. After ordering an outstandingly made Negroni (what ice! what ingredients!) we opted for dinner. Dinner was delicious, service was smart and snappy, and all was well with the world. There was a band. They were OK.
Sadly the restaurant was not open for breakfast during our stay. Instead there is a starbucks knockoff cafe on the ground floor with a microwave. Not the sign of a great hotel, guys. Frankly, the place feels more like a Marriott than a Kimpton. No human touch and no magic.
Sunday was devoted to fun without a plan. Brunch at Fixe was absolutely stellar. Great Bloody Mary’s and cinnamon roll biscuits. Fantastic food and friendly Texas service. We took our time.
In a great mood and in weather befitting Spring (60 degrees), we headed to South Congress for some idle shopping. Our only real destination was Heritage Boot Company. Though we got no pictures, we did manage to pick up a knife for my kilt and three pairs of handmade boots. We even had a margarita of sorts with “Mr. Avocado.” Great people, great boots, and a down home Texas vibe. (Thanks Kimber.) NPS hears tell that once you buy one pair you are on a slippery slope to ten. We shall see.
We did manage to singlehandedly support the American economy with our credit cards. And then it was time for a margarita and some music at Half Step. The margaritas are on tap. We were served by Nick Cage himself.
Margarita @halfstepbar served by nick cage himself @LoveTequila @rivco pic.twitter.com/PYH26aasFP
— noplasticshower (@noplasticshower) January 16, 2022
And that band. Three blind fellows joined by two sighted musicians and a heap of funk. These were real Austin professionals.
Have a listen for yourself.
About the time we extracted we were late for our dinner reservation at Canje. Dinner was excellent. The jerk chicken was hotter than hell. The drinks were fun. The vibe was casual.
Really it would be hard to ask for a better Sunday in Austin.
Monday was a work day with a working lunch at Qi. Get the soup dumplings.
Part of the late afternoon meeting happened at the Proper hotel. This place is interesting but just a little too artificial after an hour in the lobby. The music loop may kill you if the extruded ice doesn’t. Dinner was slated for upstairs at la piscina ceviches and fajitas. Our hosts are enamored with their fajitas. They were (as Sammy says) pretty not bad.
The highlight of the evening Monday night was a quick stop by the Roosevelt Room. What a place. Cavernous and somehow still intimate. Superb cocktails served with whimsy and great care. One of the top bars in the world for sure. NPS had a paper plane (with a paper plane) and a Liberal. Yup. Amer Picon in the house. We seem to have lost our party all night energy during the pandemic, especially after a full day of working in person. So we’ll have to go back. Thanks for the hospitality Justin.
Well, Austin, we will definitely be back. We’ll probably buy some more Heritage boots. We’ll definitely have a few more drinks at the Roosevelt Room. But we’ll stay at the Driskill. Three showerheads for the Hotel Van Zandt where you get what you pay for (and nothing more).
San Francisco Post Pandemic
June 27, 2021
How exactly do you get back on the horse after a year of not even being in the barn? Or remembering you’re on a farm? Or much of anything? Well, we’re well on our way to finding out. In all honesty the first post pandemic trip (to Mobile, Alabama) was so shocking that we skipped the blogging aspect entirely. Culture shock, people shock, and total documentation whiff. Great trip…but so rusty.
Here we are in California visiting friends we have not seen in just over two years. Dang. Actual humans not in our pod! We really missed them.
The first order of business was getting on an airplane. And of course, United was the default choice. We took a look at the trips put in deep freeze way back in February 2020, pulled one out of the freezer, and thawed it out. Other than the mask mandate, things are pretty much the same on a cross country B787 flight. The waffle thing was terrible. I mean serve Eggos for goodness sake.
Flying on a @united B787 dreamliner in Polaris pod 3B. First class is not full. pic.twitter.com/yKbXE26lJF
— noplasticshower (@noplasticshower) June 21, 2021
The coolest thing about coming to California from Virginia has always been how much time you get back on the way out. By flying at 7:30am, not only is Dulles completely empty and easy to navigate in the morning, arrival at SFO happens around 9:30am.
It was off in an airport taxi (SF cabs STILL suck) for a tag in at Doug and Laura’s new house in the city near Golden Gate park. What a find! The showers are not plastic, the dogs are friendly (if a bit stinky) and the friends are priceless.
Lunch at Crepevine was a little too huge. The fries are really good.
Then it was over the bridge to Oakland for some BIML business with Open Philanthropy. This bridge thing was to become a recurring theme on the San Francisco part of the trip. Then of all places Ruby Hill for a friendly business visit with Neil and some delicious sushi.
Neil has a new house. It gives a tour of itself. We opened the very first bottle of wine in the new house…an NPS honor. Sushi was ordered and served.
The neighborhood dive nearest to Doug and Laura’s is called the Fireside. The bartenders are friendly, and the drinks are, well, I had fernet every time, so who knows how the drinks are. If you are lucky, you will be privileged enough to buy a beer for a Nigerian prince. Or maybe just someone from Rhode Island.
Fireside bar fernet pic.twitter.com/CsMlivfW0O
— noplasticshower (@noplasticshower) June 22, 2021
Tuesday was an all day run up to Sonoma with Jacob. We started with some oysters at Tony’s Seafood. Amazingly, it rained on us. But that was OK, because the big tent kept us dry and boy does California need the rain.
After lunch (man was that bread good), it was up to Ridge Winery on mostly side roads. The drive was fast and beautiful. The sky began to dapple blue and soon the blue leaked into the clouds and covered the sky as we worked north.
Ridge is a great place to sit on a beautiful day and sip good wine from old vines. Delightful and recommended.
Ridge set a high bar, and one that Mazzocco could not reach. Great decor there, but nope on all other fronts.
Then it was back to the city for ramen at Iza Ramen. Yes please. Just go there. Wow. Real ramen like the before times.
A nightcap at Churchhill, which is a great old school bar. They used to sell the antique collection bourbons for way under retail price…sadly, they have figured out how much to charge now.
Finally, a late night with friends at 54 Mint. I really missed the energy of Jacques during the pandemic!
Then somehow it was Wednesday. We started with tacos at Underdog Tres, a romp in the Japanese garden, and a visit to the botanical gardens (the latter two in Golden Gate park).
We were joined by Dr.Chess.
Then after a brief respite at home, it was off to ABV for some world class cocktails where we finally met Chris in person.
Drinking with @noplasticshower at @ABV_SF! pic.twitter.com/z4bYrHuLLU
— MacCocktail (@MacCocktail) June 24, 2021
We tried to magic our way into State Bird Provision. But no dice. So it was back toward home for some peruvian food at Fresca.
Then back to the Fireside. This time there were zero African princes around.
Thursday was reserved for Alameda, the beach, and a sunburn (?!). It was a beautiful day over there once we got over the confounded bridge.
Everyone assembled at Blackbird for pre-dinner drinks at six. Blackbird had just re-opened (like everywhere else), and the permanent staff was as great as always.
Then, just to put a crown jewel on the day we walked over to Izakaya Rintaro for a world-class dinner that was as good as anything in the before times. Excellent food, fun service and great friends. Yup.
After a last showing at the Fireside bar, the San Francisco visit came to a close.
And it was off to Sonoma bright and early Friday morning.
Bloomington Done Right: The Grant Street Inn
January 17, 2020
You know how we feel here at NPS when it comes to generic hotels. The good news is that this trip (off season and not on a game weekend) the Grant Street Inn had our favorite room available. Needless to say, this place beats the heck out of the Hyatt Place.
So here we are in room 31. Sadly the fireplace has been disconnected and no longer functions. In fact, there are a few things that could use sprucing up…like better furnishings, no ancient radio, no phone that plugs into the wall, and some outlets built into the bedside table. You can do it guys!!
The first trip of 2020 started out great with a last minute upgrade from United who seems to have changed their upgrade policy to make things more nail biting for Global Services members. Not sure how we feel about that.
And then there was the hilarious stretch limo that the car service used to get us from Indy to Bloomington.
While in Bloomington, visit the Irish Lion for a stiff drink. And have some food at Anyetsang’s Little Tibet Restaurant.
The Grant Street remains our favorite location to stay in Bloomington. Four showerheads.
Rydges South Bank Brisbane: A Hotel Disaster (part one)
December 2, 2018
Somehow in this case the word “Rydges” connotes cheap condoms from a gas station vending machine. We’re traveling with a group, and that means little control over situations that NPS usually has a strict handle on. No worries, we were assigned the second best room category on the Rydges South Bank property with a balcony overlooking the river. Room 1116 is a bit cramped, but not bad.
Except for the part where it is connected by a very thin door to the suite next door where an asshole is hosting an all night party. The party involved yelling, loud conversation, noisy sex, door slamming, and more! At least the party wound down for a bit about 1:15am when we called management and they had a chat with the noisy people. But then at 5am it all started again with speaker phone conversations and more loud asshole.
Basically, I guess we’ve decided that the wrong class of people frequents this hotel. That makes Rydges more of a “Walmart-shopper style salesperson on a bender with some hookers” hotel. Or maybe it is only the ridiculous Christmas revelry sweeping the city.
Whatever. We fixed things the next morning after no sleep. Rydges can and does do better!
Brisbane, on the other hand is a great place to visit.
We went to Koala-land (Lone Pine Koala sanctuary) after we ditched our bags at the hotel. Well worth a visit. Just don’t plan to eat any food there. Really. Captive audience means super bad food, even by zoo standards.

Kangaroo
We did the obligatory koala picture.

Koala picture from Lone Pine
About which…
And then it was back to the hotel to shower before cocktail hour (crammed into a tiny bathroom).

Not much room, but the shower is glass

Two people can’t use this sink at one time (unless one is on the john)

River view and a cute balcony
We had fantastic Negroni’s made with Four Pillars gin at Wickham with Rachel. Also gathered data for later cocktail shenanigans. (Skip eleven rooftop bar unless you like fake glitz and dated DJ music.)
Dinner at Caravanserai was very good indeed. Authentic Turkish in a funky noisy boisterous atmosphere. Nice. Just don’t forget to pick up a bottle of wine to drink on your way in.

Caravanserai
Then ride the wheel for a dash of too much AC before bed.

The Wheel
Two showerheads and a fervent hope that the asshole next door gets a cosmic comeuppance for Rydges phase one. Things got better!
Sydney Hilton: From Hamster Cage to Palace (part one)
November 27, 2018
Right, so we flew from New Zealand which was pretty much of a paradise to a big city in Australia on purpose. That’s how it goes sometimes! Fortunately, Sydney turns out to be a great place for a look around.
We must say that the so-called “partnership” between United Airlines and Air New Zealand is utterly useless. No star alliance perqs here. Just middle seats in economy. Not impressed at all with the Air New Zealand experience. Global services my ass.
Anyway, we arrived and cabbed basically across town to the Sydney Hilton.
Any loyal reader of NPS knows that these kinds of big, industrial hotel chains are not our cup of tea. But we’re here on business and the hotel choice is out of our control. The Hilton is a nice property and it is centrally locaded, so that’s all good.
On arrival, our room category (which I believe turned out to be the “crappy” category) was not available, so we went and got some ramen. The front desk staff was helpful and friendly about the delay. Thanks SooYeon.
Ramen at Yasaka Ramen was authentic and delicious, but super heavy. Be forewarned.

Ramen in Sydney
When we returned about an hour later (after coffee at Doppio which we highly recommend), our room was ready. We were assigned hamster cage 2203.
Lets just be cheerful about the whole thing and call it “cramped.” We have so much stuff in tow on our 25 day trip, that there was not even room to stash our luggage.

No room for walking in 2203

This is as far away from the bed as the camera can get. LOL.
The bathroom is likewise very tiny.
But the shower was at least glass!
If you are a hamster or some other kind of tiny rodent, this is the room category for you. Sure it’s free. Yup.
Two showerheads for the “crappy” room category at the Sydney Hilton. Just don’t.
Fortunately, after a walk around the botanical gardens, we ambled right back into the lobby and switched ourselves up to a Relaxation Suite. Apparently there are 16 such rooms available on this property. For more, see part two!